Day 6—Ketchikan

by | Jun 21, 2026 | Uncategorized

Well, it happened. We got a tan in Ketchikan. Sunshine is almost unheard of in this town, and this is the third time we have found it here. Every other time, it has been rainy and cold. But yesterday was wonderful. We awoke to bright sunshine and an announcement at 7:00 am that whales had been spotted off the side of the ship, so everyone raced to see. I got my trusty Nikon out and got a photo of a whale (see my photos below) from a cruise ship for the first time ever. The only other time we have seen whales was on a whale-watching trip.

We did all the usual things in the morning as we sailed into Ketchikan. We were not scheduled to arrive until 1:30 pm, so we were going sloooowwww. We heard we could have lunch on the Retreat Sundeck, a very nice deck at the very top and front of the ship. So up we went, only to find two small problems. First, there were very few tables (lots of lounge chairs, (I hate eating in a lounge chair), and the food delivery method was a total failure.

When you ordered your lunch, they sent the order down to the kitchen, somewhere in the bowels of the ship. The orders were then sent up in small plastic boxes. We ordered turkey wraps with fries. It took about 40 minutes for the food to reach the Retreat deck. When we finally got it, it was cold. A cold wrap is OK, but cold French fries are basically inedible rubber. We mentioned this to our new friends Richard and Randy today, and they told us that when they had lunch on the Retreat Sundeck on an M-class ship, the food was made very close to the sundeck and was warm. They need to do that on the Solstice.

After lunch, Kathleen and I split up, she went upstairs for a quick nap and I went to walk around the city. WOW, what a change from the last time we had been here. And OMG, the crowds. There were six ships when we docked, and this town has a real hard time absorbing that many people. The sidewalks were jammed with people, and the streets were jammed with buses and tour vans as you will see from my photos below.

I took a quick walk to a local drugstore, which obviously catered to the cruising public. I kind of knew this because I needed more Aleve after hurting my shoulder on our Harv and Marv trip. They carried a 12-pill box of Aleve for $24.99. That was more than $2 a pill. When I jokingly asked the clerk how people who lived here could afford to have a headache, he said that no Ketchikan local would be caught dead shopping downtown. And if I didn’t want to pay their prices, I could find another drugstore (where the locals shop) about three miles away. I didn’t need the Aleve that badly because Cathy had some she said she would give me.

After giving up on the Aleve search, I walked from there over to the historic Creek Street area. It was slammed. I had never seen a line waiting to get into Creek Street, which is a quaint tourist area that was Ketchikan’s original downtown. All kinds of gifty, touristy places abound, along with some fun house tours of all kinds of things. See my photos below for an idea of the kind of place it is.

After that, it was back to Solstice and get ready for drinks, dinner and bed…we thought in that order. But that was not to be. I will send you a bonus post soon explaining the hilarious rest of the evening.

Don't forget: if you click the first shot, you can scroll through using your arrow keys or by swiping and you will be able to see the captions at the bottom of the photos. 

"You should never go to Alaska as a young man. Because you'll never be satisfied with any other place as long as you live." – John Muir

Day 5-Juneau

by | Jun 20, 2026 | Uncategorized

We have been to Juneau on all 12 of our previous Alaskan cruises, so going back there would be pretty much the same for us. Most of those visits just involved getting off the ship and walking around downtown. Maybe we would take the cable car tram to the top of the mountain. (Sadly, that cable car is now closed due to an accident earlier in the season.) Maybe we would just stay on the ship. This morning was no exception. While Kathleen stayed on the ship, I got off and walked around. I wanted to send some postcards and needed stamps. I found a cute little shop that was also a contract post office with a really nice clerk. We chatted for a while, mailed my postcards, walked around, and took some photos (see them below). Then it was back on board for lunch before our one big excursion of the entire cruise.

But way back in 2007, when we were here with Mike, Carol, Bob and Jude, we went whale watching with a wonderful company called Harv and Marv. At that time, it was just the two guys with two boats, and it was a highly personalized whale watching experience.

We have told everyone this story, but I will quickly repeat it. On that whale-watching trip, we left the marina in their small boat (only six people) and headed out to see whales. About five miles out, just off an island with houses on the shore, we stopped. We saw a woman come out of one of the houses holding something small in her hands. She got into a kayak on the beach and paddled toward us. When she reached the boat, she handed Marv a small plastic container. We then learned that the woman was his wife and that she was bringing us freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. It has become a legend with us. That’s how you build a business. As a retired marketing person, that’s the best marketing you can do. We have told that story again and again, and when people hear it, they want to book with Harv and Marv.

So with all of us coming back to Alaska, we had to book another tour with Harv and Marv. Of course, they now have a bunch of boats, both big and small, and Harv or Marv no longer take you out; they have employees for that. And sadly, there are no more cookies. We were picked up just off the pier by one of their bus drivers (they now have multiple buses) and whisked north to the Auke Bay Marina, where we boarded our boat with our guide for the day, Jace. A very fine young man, and he knew his stuff, but it just wasn’t the same as sailing with the original guys.

If you have never been whale watching, as Mike pointed out while we were out in the boat, it is a lot like fishing. Most of it is just sitting around waiting for something to happen. Except, unlike fishing, when you whale watch, you have to keep looking everywhere for the tell-tale flume as they surface to exhale. Thank goodness they are air-breathing mammals, or humanity might not have a clue they were down there.

So that’s what we did. We drove around and looked. And then there’s the excitement when you find them (or the disappointment when you’re faked out by the wake of another boat). Then you race to get closer (boats are only allowed to be no closer than 100 yards from the whales), but by the time you get there, they’ve gone under again. The next time they come up, they could be a good quarter mile away. Sometimes you get lucky, and they come up closer to your boat, so you get to take pictures.

Here’s the crazy part. Obviously, whales are HUGE creatures, but unless you get incredibly lucky enough to see one breach almost completely out of the water, all you ever see is their backs and their tails. I shot more than 600 photos while we were out looking, and in the photos below, you will probably see only six to eight of the whales—mostly tails. I take that many because I set my Nikon to the highest repeat settings, so when I press the shutter, I get about 20 photos a second (or it seems like it’s that many), and I get a ton of the exact same photos of all the whales. In our years of taking Alaska cruises, I have never seen a breach, so if you like whale photos, below are some tails. It is exhilarating to see one, but when you think about it, it’s fairly anticlimactic.

We saw a couple of other things while we were out. First (and most surprisingly), we saw the sun come out. It was glorious and almost as rare in Alaska as seeing a whale breach. We also saw some sea lions sunning themselves on a buoy. I believe visiting that buoy is one of the highlights of every Harv and Marv excursion. It’s way out in the bay and usually has six or eight sea lions on it. I have photos from 2007 that match the ones I took this week, except these are in the sunshine.

After the sea lions, we headed back to the marina because we had to catch our ship, and Jace had to take out one last tour (he did four that day—Harv and Marv are doing very well). We had dinner, then it was off to bed.

I should mention one other thing about evenings. There are shows—we just don’t go to them. As regular readers of this blog know, we just went on a theater tour to Broadway last month and saw some amazing productions. After that, cruise ship shows just don’t do it for us. I usually will stay up for a comic, but that’s about it. We truly have become old fuddy-duddies. Which is OK. Mike always does a full report on every cruise, and he goes to all those shows, so when he publishes his report, he will have all that and much more (menus, additional ship photos, etc.). I will let you know when his report is up.

Of course, I have photos for you, and they are below. Don't forget: if you click the first shot, you can scroll through using your arrow keys or by swiping. That way, you can see the captions as well. And PLEASE... don't look at my photography on a phone. Please...

 

"We owe it to our children to be better stewards of the environment. The alternative? - a world without whales. It's too terrible to imagine." —Pierce Brosnan

Day 4—Hubbard Glacier

by | Jun 19, 2026 | Uncategorized

Sometimes when I am doing a live blog like this, it is hard to remember the day before yesterday. Especially when you have a really big excursion on the intervening day. Yesterday we were in Juneau and went out whale watching but that’s a story for tomorrow. Today is Hubbard Glacier which we visited on Wednesday—the day after we visited Icy Strait Point.

For the uninitiated, one of the biggest reasons people cruise to Alaska is to see the glaciers. There are four glacier-viewing areas any ship can visit, though some are much better than others. In our 13 cruises to Alaska, we have visited all four. By far the best is Glacier Bay, followed by Hubbard, Misty Island Fjords, and Tracy Arm.

This year, there are only three because Tracy Arm has been experiencing rockslide activity, and the cruise lines are avoiding it. When I first went to Glacier Bay, I was so impressed that I wanted to know why everyone doesn’t go there on every cruise. I found out it’s an environmental issue. Glacier Bay is a national park, and the number of ships that can sail in is highly regulated through a permit process. Because the permits are grandfathered (cruise lines that have been here the longest get first call), if you want to see Glacier Bay, you need to cruise with either Holland America or Princess, as they have been doing Alaska the longest and have the permits to show for it. Or you can take one of the smaller cruise lines that leave midweek, when Princess or HAL are not sailing and not in the Bay. Permits are issued to X number of ships per day.

Hubbard is used by the second tier of cruise lines (in terms of the number of years they have been cruising in Alaska, then Tracy Arm and finally Misty Island Fjords. While in Glacier Bay, you may sail by more than 10 glaciers. When you visit Hubbard, you see two—Hubbard and Turner. Hubbard is the main attraction as Turner is receding.

According to Wikipedia, receding glaciers, also known as glacial retreat, occur when a glacier melts and shrinks faster than it can accumulate new snow and ice. Because glaciers naturally flow downhill like slow-moving rivers, “receding” simply means the ice is melting away at its lower edges—or terminus—faster than the glacier can replenish itself.

Hubbard is an advancing glacier. When a glacier advances, it gains more snow and ice (accumulation) than it loses to melting or breaking off (ablation), causing the end of the glacier (the terminus or snout) to grow and push further downslope or out into a valley.

In layman's (and photographic terms), Hubbard advancing means the front of the glacier is pretty much a beautiful white and blue, while Turner (right next to it) is white but covered in all kinds of black debris. Check out my photos to see what I mean. In the distance above is Hubbard.

Whew! Now that you know more about glaciers than you ever wanted to know, here’s what happened to us on our Hubbard Glacier day. Wait. You still need to know about the ice. As glaciers advance, pieces of ice fall off. And if there is a huge ice field in front of the glacier, the ship can’t go there. And when we went to Hubbard, there was a HUGE ice field in front of us, so we barely got to see her. We spent 90% of our time in front of Turner's dirty face, and later in the day got to see Hubbard from afar.

I created a small map to show you how close we got to Hubbard and its position relative to Turner. We could go no further around the point than into the aptly named Disenchantment Bay due to the buildup of ice in the water. On previous visits to Hubbard Glacier, the ship we were on had been able to get much closer to the face of the glacier—not on this trip. If this were your only cruise to Alaska, you would not get the big deal that many of us make about viewing glaciers.

All this said, I will just let you look at the photos, and the captions will do a better job of explaining our distance, viewing angles, etc.

 

“A glacier doesn't die in thunder. It dies in silence. Drip by drip. Story by story. What we're losing isn't just ice— It's the future, melting away.” —Anurag Maloo

Day 3—Icy Strait Point

by | Jun 18, 2026 | Uncategorized

Way back in August 2007, we last visited Icy Strait Point. Back then, it was a tiny tourist attraction featuring two things: the longest (at the time) zip line in the world and an old cannery that had been turned into a museum. Here we are, just under 20 years later, and we are back again. When we were here the first time, this was a tender port (for the non-cruisers, that means to get to the port, you get into a lifeboat and they take you to a small dock in the harbor where you get off, see everything, and then get back on). Not anymore.

We visited here with our Martini Mates that year on Celebrity’s Infinity. We came ashore and walked around for about an hour. We took the shuttle bus into the village of Hoonah (where, really, there was nothing to see), then it was back on the tender and back to the ship.

WOW! How things have changed in 19 years. Now there are two piers big enough to handle a cruise ship, so we didn’t have to tender. The two piers are fairly far apart (about a 30-minute hike on a nice trail), so they built a gondola that takes you from the pier where we docked over to the original area, which has now been built up. In 2007, there was a snack bar. Now there are at least four restaurants, a couple of snack bars, and coffee places as well. The Cannery museum is now less of a museum and more of a mini shopping mall. The zip line is still there, but sadly, it was too windy for it to be in service. And no, we were not going to ride it ourselves. Too long and too high, thank you. Plus, we are way too old.

When Solstice arrived, there was a Princess cruise ship on the pier we were to dock on, and because Celebrity has a deal with the locals and helped build the two ocean piers, they got first choice, so the Princess ship had to pull off the pier and tender the rest of her guests back to the ship. The other pier was occupied by Celebrity Summit, a ship we know well after sailing her from Newark to Québec and back in 2018.

Solstice had docked at the pier where you needed to either hike or take the gondola to see the Cannery area. So Mike, Cathy and I jumped into one of the cars and headed over. The gentleman running the gondola was very good at his job. He had three lines, and the gondola hardly ever stopped. You just got on as it slowly came through the on-and-off section. Really simple and easy to do. The ride took about 15 minutes, and we were dropped off at the gateway to the Cannery area.

It was a very short walk down to the Cannery museum and shops, along a really nice boardwalk with stairs that periodically led to the beach. There was also a great statue of an orca whale (see my pics below). We walked down, saw the shops, talked to some folks, were mistaken for someone on a whale watching tour, Mike and Cathy got a beer, and I set off to walk the trail back to the ship. Got lots of photos on the way and had a great time. There are bear warnings all over the place, but the path was well traveled and, as Bob says, “Don’t worry about bears unless you are the slowest person you can see nearby.” I stopped to buy some postcards on the way (yes, I still send paper postcards), and then it was back aboard and off to drinks and dinner.

Sadly, after an awesome sandwich we had for lunch that passed the Steve Test (see yesterday’s post if you don’t know what the Steve Test is) in Luminae, dinner was a total failure. Bob ordered a steak, and it was a huge, thick chunk of beef with absolutely no flavor whatsoever. I know, because he gave me a piece, and I tried it. It was like eating a chewy piece of nothing. No sauce, no grill marks, no nothing. Just a big hunk of beef barely seared on four sides. My cannelloni wasn’t much better. Two pasta tubes, stuffed with too much meat, too little cheese and too little sauce. This time the meal wasn’t fine. It was bad.

Lunch today was an adventure, but I will tell you about that tomorrow. And about our visit to the Hubbard Glacier.

Don't forget: if you click the first shot, you can scroll through using your arrow keys or by swiping. When you do that, you can also see the captions for the photos. These are the first shots of the trip where I was able to show off my photography expertise, so please check them out on a computer or tablet, not your phone.

 

"The more things change, the more they stay the same" —Jean Baptiste Alphonse Karr

Solstice Day 2—A Sad Sea Day & Your First Food Report

by | Jun 17, 2026 | Uncategorized

For years, I have been telling people that you are much better off taking an Alaskan cruise from Vancouver rather than Seattle. One of the main reasons is the Canadian Inside Passage. This is our 13th Alaska cruise and our eighth (I think) from Vancouver, and it is the first time we have not taken the Canadian Inside Passage.

If you have never sailed the Canadian Inside Passage, it is one of the most beautiful places we have ever sailed. Think of a river cruise on a very big river. Sloping mountains of evergreens come right down to the water’s edge. Eagles fly overhead, and you can sometimes see bears and deer drinking at the shore below the trees. Because this area is protected by islands on the outside and the Canadian mainland on the inside, the temperatures are warmer, and the sun is often out. At the top of this page is a map showing the area I am talking about.

Well, we were very sad to wake up to almost an open ocean. You could see land, but it was quite far to our east. This was not the Alaska cruise I had hoped for. My buddy Bob (who is a strong believer in the Canadian Inside Passage) thought it might have something to do with the size of the ship, but we sailed this way on Infinity a number of times, and that ship isn’t that much smaller than this one.

Otherwise, it was a pretty uneventful sea day yesterday. We had breakfast. Bob, Judy, and I went to trivia at 10:30, and then we met everyone for lunch. After lunch, I worked on a few photos, then did four miles on the jogging/running/walking track on deck 14. A major rant from me about walking on the walking track. This is a two-fold complaint. One small complaint I can deal with, but I will mention it so that maybe someone reading this can stop doing it.

Stop walking three people across a path built for three people. You are blocking everyone from going in any direction, whether they are walking for exercise or just getting from one end of deck 14 to the other. It is just plain rude. If you see someone coming your way and there is no place for them to go, walk single file for a minute or two until they pass. And while we are on the subject, maybe the real thing I need to say is this: BE SELF-AWARE! I can’t tell you how many people have just walked in front of me. Most of them were either talking to the person they were walking with, looking at the scenery, or looking at their phones. WAKE UP! You are not the only person on the ship or in the world.

My other quibble about the walking track is with Celebrity. And this happens on all the Solstice-class ships. Why is it that people walking, jogging, or running to stay healthy have to pass through one of the only smoking areas on the ship? WTF? Move the smoking area or shut it down. Every time I came around the track to that spot (about 35 times), I choked on the fumes from more than 20 smokers. There is a large smoking area in Sunset Park (one whole side of the aft of the area). That should be enough. Let’s close down the smoking area that coincides with the track. OK, rant over…back to yesterday.

After my walk, it was back to the stateroom to change for dinner (it was chic night). Kathleen says she saw some formal dresses, but I didn’t see any men in tuxedos and very few in ties. All of us had jackets on, so we were looking sharp. There was a pre-dinner reception with the captain and senior officers in The Retreat Lounge, which was very nice. Drinks and nibbles. The captain is a very nice guy who has been with Celebrity since before it became Celebrity.

I thought this might be a good time to talk about the food. So far, we have eaten in three venues on board. We had lunch at the Sunset Bar Cafe on deck 15 during embarkation. The salads and sandwiches were great. I do wish they had a bar there as well, because if you want something to drink besides water, you have to walk to the back of the Sunset area to the Sunset Bar and get your drink either before or after you get food. Now, it isn’t that far, but what was a pain was having to stand in two lines. One for food, one for drinks, and they are far apart.

We had dinner at Trattoria Rossa, and it was wonderful. If you go, have the lasagna or the lamb. That’s what we had. Dessert was also amazing with the made-at-the-table cannoli and tiramisu. It does pass the Steve Test with flying colors.

The rest of our meals (so far, 2 breakfasts, 1 lunch, and 1 dinner) have been at the suites’ restaurant, Luminae. The food has been just fine. Nothing amazing to write home to mom about, but fine. So far, Luminae does NOT pass the Steve Test. For those of you who are new readers, this is what the Steve Test is all about:

The Steve Test

After our disastrous Celebrity Millennium cruise in May 2022 (the food was horrible), my brother Steve came up with a way to rate food and restaurants while traveling, which I have found to be more effective and easier to understand than any other method I have encountered. From then on, I have called this the “Steve Test”.

Here's the test: If you eat at a food venue during your travels, either on a ship (main dining room, buffet, grille, or a specialty restaurant) or on land (hotel, restaurant, street food, etc.), and that restaurant was near you once you returned home, would you go there again? Would you become a regular? Would you go there for special occasions?

That’s pretty simple. I think it's the best way I've ever heard of to rate food on vacation, and I will rate each place I eat while traveling using the “Steve Test”.

I have high hopes that they will improve. My personal feeling is that they are trying too hard to make the food look cool. It takes nice photos, but at the expense of taste, and things that could be great are just OK. My hope is that this will improve as the week goes on. I have included some photos of the food below, with comments to show what I mean.

Breaking news! It’s Tuesday (our day in Icy Strait Point, which I will report on tomorrow), and we had lunch at Luminae. We had a sandwich that not only passed the Steve Test but also made me want to drive across town to get this particular sandwich. More about that tomorrow.

We also want to thank two new friends we have made, Richard and Randy, who told us a secret about Luminae—you can order off the Main Dining Room menu if you just ask to see it. Thanks, guys.

Here are some food pics for you. Enjoy. Don't forget: if you click the first shot, you can scroll through using your arrow keys or by swiping to read the captions and see what you are looking at. And feel free to look at these on your phones. I took them with mine.

"Do you remember when you were younger, and you used to take photos of your food, send them out to be developed, get back prints and then send them to your friends? Neither do we." —Popular internet meme